Projects & Impact

AHP has built its business on applying best practices, many of which we have helped to shape, and real-world, hands-on knowledge to improving systems and business practices for our clients.

In all of the work that we do, we are guided by our mission to improve health and human services systems of care and business operations to help organizations and individuals reach their full potential.

Search

Search Projects by Category

Select items in one or more of four categories to find relevant project types:

Something went wrong please try again later.

BHbusiness Plus is funded through a contract with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). It offers customized, virtual technical assistance and training to behavioral health executives at no cost to participants. The goal is to help behavioral health providers identify and implement customized change projects that expand their service capacity, harness new payer sources, and thrive in the changing health care environment. The program empowers participating organizations to actually make quantifiable changes, rather than just learning how to do so. It links participants into specific learning networks that focus on a specific topic of interest and provides opportunities for networking and peer support. Everyone in a learning network receives hands-on expertise and guidance to initiate, continue, and complete business operations changes.

Participants benefit from the following supports:

focused technical assistance that meets each organization’s business needs;

guidance from a dedicated coach that helps participants develop a customized change project;

access to a peer group of like-minded providers that empowers organizations to learn from combined experiences to grow their businesses;

consultation from leading subject matter experts in the field; and

resources designed to be meaningful to learners, providing practical action steps to meet individual challenges.

Facing evolving state and federal requirements for clinical integration, this group of rural behavioral health providers sought AHP’s help to assess their capabilities and begin to build a provider network to better serve their region. Recognizing the competitive risk of more dominant health systems, these smaller providers have banded together and are collaborating with AHP to strengthen their administrative capacity and efficiency and deliver care more effectively. AHP is conducting a readiness assessment of each provider’s capabilities for forming a provider network model with an analysis of strengths and weaknesses, along with recommendations for the most suitable network model to pursue. In addition, AHP is developing a business planning process with a blueprint for implementation for the chosen model. Each organization will receive a feasibility study and business plan for establishing a shared services organization.

Impact:
Ultimately this work will strengthen all participating community-based behavioral health service agencies involved by creating business operation efficiencies, building a network of shared services, and improving the quality, access, and delivery of behavioral health care to the residents of the rural counties affected.

This provider association engaged AHP to help form a provider network from among its members. AHP developed a robust strategic business operational plan and pro forma by performing in-depth analyses of key business operations areas and developing an action plan. Building on that work, AHP then facilitated the implementation planning process for credentialing and billing. As a result, AHP delivered a comprehensive roadmap outlining the functional processes to institute and a set of recommendations and procedures to help launch the desired network.

AHP is collaborating with the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) to develop, implement and pilot-test an integrated behavioral health and primary care intervention for homeless African Americans with mental illness. Funded by the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities, in this project, peer navigators—African Americans with lived experience of homelessness and behavioral health problems—connect homeless African Americans with mental illness to medical and mental health care, helping them “navigate” these complicated health systems. AHP and IIT are conducting a randomized controlled clinical trial examining the effectiveness of peer navigators in improving health outcomes for this vulnerable population.

Impact:
Preliminary results suggest that project participants who worked with peer navigators had significant improvements in health functioning. Peer navigators may be a critical tool in helping homeless African Americans with mental illness access the integrated behavioral health and primary care services they need to address their complex health problems.

In 2011, AHP foresaw the coming impact of both the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on the substance use disorder (SUD) field. Working with the State Associations of Addictions Services (SAAS), the largest national association of SUD treatment and service providers at the time, AHP developed an approach to assess and redesign the nation’s SUD delivery system. Together SAAS and AHP deployed the Readiness and Capabilities Assessment (RCA), a jointly developed survey tool to measure provider ability to meet the expected demands of the new legislation.

Impact:
AHP produced a white paper presenting a systems change approach for SUD providers to use in adapting and transforming to the requirements of the MHPAEA and the ACA with their demands for behavioral/mental health parity and the triple aim of quality, cost, and care. The report was widely disseminated among industry, provider, and legislative stakeholders.

Rosecrance Health Networks, a private, not-for-profit behavioral health organization, contracted AHP to analyze its residential treatment data in order to help Rosecrance highlight how its services help adolescents and adults struggling with substance use disorders recover and reclaim their lives. Working with Rosecrance leadership, AHP identified the most compelling information on patient recovery and program success, and made recommendations on how Rosecrance might use those results in marketing its services. As part of this process, AHP examined how Rosecrance meets national and state quality indicators of effective substance use treatment.

AHP has supported long-time client and partner, the Illinois Alcoholism and Drug Dependence Association (IADDA), on several key policy, marketing, and system design initiatives. In 2012, AHP reviewed and analyzed state insurance laws and regulations, and made recommendations concerning substance use disorder (SUD) policy and coverage. Subsequently, in light of Illinois’ decision to expand Medicaid in a coordinated care organization context in 2013–2014, AHP conducted an environmental scan to identify gaps in the statewide system of care that, if filled adequately, would result in an “ideal system design.” In 2014, AHP provided a review and set of recommendations for cost rates of behavioral health services in Illinois. The resulting document showed current rates were under national norms, and the data was used by IADDA in lobbying efforts to adjust provider rates in the state.

Impact:
AHP’s work with IADDA has empowered the organization to advocate on behalf of SUD and mental health providers in Illinois with key policy and regulatory stakeholders in the state and to influence positive change in the delivery of services.